Flipkart and Myntra, both have decided to embrace mobile app only interface as they have suspended their mobile websites and forcing visitors to install their application for doing shopping.
So, going forward if you visit Flipkart.com or Myntra in your browser, here is what you will be greeted with, and you will no way to access the mobile website.
The homepage of both of these portals provides a link to their application, and users are encouraged to install that.
Considering the explosive mobile internet usage which India is experiencing right, it is expected that by 2019, there would be 651 million smartphone users and mobile web users will increase 13 times in the next 4 years. These decisions have been taken after considering the mobile usage habits of Indians presently and in near future.
As per reports coming in, Flipkart may opt to suspend their desktop website as well, and only allow shoppers to order via their mobile application.
Around 10 days back, we had reported that Myntra can ditch their mobile and desktop websites and opt only for mobile app based commerce, as 90% of the traffic and 80% of the sales are being generated via mobile internet.
We had never imagined that they will take action in this regards so swiftly, and decide to suspend their mobile websites all together within 10 days. Analysts are proclaiming this to be a redefining decision not only for Indian ecommerce market but also globally.
As per Flipkart, as a customer is always logged into their mobile apps, it becomes easier for the company to share their offers and help them shop, while spending less time.
Representatives from both the companies have confirmed that they are shutting down their mobile websites.
A Flipkart spokesperson shared this with Mint: “Over the past year we have come to believe that we can serve our users much better through our apps simply due to the flexibility it offers. With the app, customers can stay logged in to Flipkart at all times. This helps them save time and get smoother and faster checkouts. Our app is designed to work relatively well even in low bandwidth conditions compared to the m-site,”
Prasad Kompalli, head of Myntra’s Ecommerce platform said, “The app is the best way of offering a seamless, personalized shopping experience to the consumer. We don’t want to compromise on the customer experience, so we’ve shut the mobile website.”
Insiders who are close to the upper management of these portals are claiming that its better to provide a comprehensive, powerful experience on one platform rather than giving shabby and less impactful experience on different platforms. Hence, they can now divert their manpower and resources to make the mobile app more engaging and conversion friendly rather than tuning their mobile website along with mobile app.
Flipkart have recently hired Puneet Soni from Google to head their products head and accelerate their mobile push. Reliable sources are telling that this decision to completely ditch their mobile websites was strongly suggested by Soni.
If we believe reports, then Flipkart along with Myntra may shut down their desktop websites as well, turning them into a full-fledged mobile only commerce platform enabled via mobile app. This will make them into direct competition with PayTm, which is now a mobile marketplace for products.
But, it may also take their customers away to Amazon.
Kneejerk Reaction to Mobile Revolution?
Reddit comments certainly suggests so. In one of the discussions regarding Flipkart (which is not positive for the portal, co-incidentally), the top rated comment was:
If we check the world’s biggest ecommerce portals like Amazon, Ebay, Target, Costco, Alibaba, Ebay, Walmart, Etsy, Shop, Overstock, BestBuy etc, then we will find that all these portals are maintaining their mobile website, along with mobile apps and desktop website. And these websites are based in USA, where mobile penetration is highest in the world, and are much ahead in mobile usage compared to Indians.
Although Flipkart and Myntra gets 60-70% of all their orders from mobile, there is still 30-40% of orders which originate from either desktop website or from mobile website, as not everyone is comfortable in installing mobile apps and tolerating the constant push-alerts and ads which these apps throw at their customers.
If these major ecommerce portals haven’t suspended their mobile website, which logic prompted Flipkart to ditch their mobile websites completely and force the visitors to install their app?
The results would be pretty interesting to observe now. Do share your viewpoint on this decision to completely ditch mobile websites and maybe desktop websites in near future, by commenting right here!